For a six-month stint, the neoclassical Duveen Galleries of Tate Britain will be transformed into an immersive, contemporary space at the hands of artist Anthea Hamilton and 7,000 gleaming white tiles for the Tate Britain Commission.

This impressive new backdrop serves as a playground for The Squashthe 2016 Turner Prize nominee’s part-sculpture-part-performance art installation that derives its name from squash and pumpkin-inspired costumes, and takes its cues from the work of early 20th-century writer and dramatist Antonin Artaud and his call for “physical knowledge of images”.



Visualised in collaboration with Loewe’s Creative Director, Jonathan Anderson, seven costumes are brought to life in the installation, one at a time and by random selection, with the solo performance artist (there are 14 on rotation) given free rein on how they will inhabit the space through their attire. 

Subject to their mood, the performer has total creative control on the literalness with which they wish to interpret the theme – embodying the palette or silhouettes of cucurbits through guises that include a head-to-toe marble-print look featuring a 70s-esque ruffled blouse, a tracksuit with a hand-painted squash texture, or an ensemble comprised of monochrome harlequin-striped trousers, a leather bolero and a silken scarf. All are crowned with an abstract, oversized fibre glass ‘head’.

To get a good look at all of the designs, schedule in multiple trips until 7 October 2018. In the meantime, shop the genius of Jonathan Anderson via Loewe here: